Minnesota Institute of Public Health

On the one hand, luck is some silly string of coincidences many people believe are influenced by a rabbit's foot, a four leaf clover, a leprechaun, a favorite coin, or some other kind of trinket. Then again, some level of new research suggests certain of these kinds of beliefs make us perform better.

This year the University of Cologne published a study in the Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology suggests certain beliefs in luck may influence how well a person performs on a given task. For example, in the study, participants were told "here is your golf ball; so far, it has turned out to be a lucky ball", were then subsequently 35% more likely to make a putt than similar golf participants who were NOT given that same information about the ball. There are numerous other examples cited in the study involving memory games, computers stock market trades, card games, all with eerily similar results about lucky charms and no lucky charms.

MIPH's work for over 18 years with the Minnesota Gambling Problems Resource Center and our managing the Minnesota Problem Gambling Helpline helped us learned a lot about how people approach "luck". While buying a lottery ticket isn't exactly a good investment for those who understand mathematical probability, it does play into one's belief about luck, if not entertainment.

Despite the emerging research, I'm still a little old fashioned about this. I believe John Milton called it right: "Luck is the residue of design." Another author commented that, "Luck has a peculiar way of favoring those who don't depend on it".

In the end, as usual, Thomas Jefferson was in my mind the one who had the best insight on luck. He said, "I am a great believer in luck and I find, the harder I work, the more I have of it!".

What's your 'take' on luck?

Good luck to you.

-JJ